March 04, 2013

Campaign finance advocate scolds White House

White House press secretary Jay Carney again fended off questions about an outside political group raising money from deep pocketed Obama donors to push the administration's agenda, insisting "any notion that there's a price for meeting with the president is simply wrong."

Campaign finance advocates have called on the White House to shut down the operation -- and Democracy 21 labeled the group -- Organizing for
Action -- a "national scandal waiting to happen." The group called on Obama
to close what it called an "unprecedented and dangerous arm of his
presidency."

Democracy 21 suggested that if Carney wants to clear up the matter, he needs to have organizers "publically and unequivocally state that there have been no
discussions with or representations made to potential donors and
bundlers about receiving meetings with President Obama in return for
making donations to or fundraising for Organizing for Action."

Another watchdog group, Common Cause, last week called on Obama to shut down the group which has reportedly promised big donors quarterly meetings with Obama.